From LQWiki

Installing Java on Debian.

The jre and jdk is not in Debian by default due to the licence not being fully free. So you have to check if contrib is added in your /etc/apt/sources.list. Example:

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian sarge main contrib non-free After adding it, run

# apt-get update

Here follows instructions on installing jre for Debian sarge.

# apt-get install java-package

download the sun jdk from java.sun.com Execute the next step as a normal user using fakeroot:

$ fakeroot make-jpkg jre-1_5_0_06-linux-i586.bin
# dpkg -i sun-j2re1.5_1.5.0+update06_i386.deb

For more instructions, see the three different ways of installing Java in Debian